Monday, May 23, 2022

Oldest universities, New England

TL;DR -- We have been looking at the History of Harvard with respect to its parallels with the unfoldment of the U.S. over 400 years. In doing so, we are paying attention to families and events over time. Post Harvard, there have been lots of universities established. Many of these have family names. Some of them are of New England. Lots are of new comers. So, we pause to look at the first 10 institutions in order to have some notion of how and where we saw the initiations. 

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Earlier, we looked at Schools, New England and beyond with a focus on the U.S. and with an intent to broaden the scope in order to account for 400 years of history, especially, the latter part dealing with the importance of the frontier century and the regularly occurring dynamics of old families (particularly, New England's) and the new arrivals. We did this cursory table showing the spread of education institutions over the landscape. 
Some U.S. Universities

The look at these institutions is part of a larger theme dealing with the American Dream which will always be of interest. But, establishing the intellectual realm's history will allow us a better position with which to look at the whole of the 400 years. We started with Harvard's history where the influence of Cambridge is considered. Family concerns was a factor; Yale will be on the list to be handled, soon. However, we wanted to stop and look at what's known historically in terms of origins. 

Lots of universities (and, colleges will be included separately if they have not extended their reach) came about in the 1800s. We were looking at Tulane's history today with respect to New England influences. Successful families and their schools dot the landscape. Stanford comes to mind (the time was of Eliot's administration). Many of these schools bear the family name. In any case, we will search out New England connections. 

Which bring us to this post. After Tulane, we looked at William and Mary with interesting associations in the old country which is more prominently seen in the southern realms. So, we will get back to that. Yale came to mind due to the Eaton connection. 

So, what came to mind was listing the 10 earliest institutions as provided by a reputable researcher. Here is the list with start year, name, and location. 
    1636, Harvard, Cambridge MA
    1693, William and Mary, Williamsburg VA
    1696, King Williams School (now, St. John's), Annapolis MD 
    1701, Yale, New Haven CT
    1740, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA
    1742, Moravian, Bethlehem PA
    1743, Delaware, Newark DE
    1746, Princeton, Princeton NJ
    1749, Washington and Lee, Lexington VA
    1754, Kings College (Columbia), New York NY
Like the expansion of our scope from New England brought by the need to look at the U.S. in total after its establishment, we will cover lots of subjects. Of importance will be tracking the educational part of the culture that developed from its earliest days. 

Colombia University's time corresponds with the French-Indian affair which set the stage for the revolution. So, we need to look at that next. 

Remarks: Modified: 05/24/2022

05/24/2022 -- Added look at Oldest universities, New Spain



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